THE CAROLINE ISLANDS 
547 
breezes, is very healthy, and where sufficient soil is found 
most of the fruits of the Malay Islands flourish, not even 
excepting the durian. Such a condition is, however, not 
very generally existent, and the coco-nut, pandanus, and 
banana afford the chief support of the natives after the 
bread-fruit, which here supplies the place filled by taro in 
the eastern islands of the Pacific. The archipelago has a 
considerable trade in copra, and several German, American, 
and English traders are established. 
The Carolines, like the Ladrones, belong to Spain, but 
were discovered by the Portuguese in the early part of 
the sixteenth century. At that period, with so much 
territory of value still unappropriated, they were not con¬ 
sidered worthy of notice, but in 1696 and 1721, canoes 
from the islands having reached the Philippines and 
Ladrones, the Spanish sent an expedition to them. They 
were subsequently claimed as a Spanish possession, but 
no attempt at government was made until 1886, when, 
in consequence of Germany attempting to gain a footing 
by hoisting her flag on Yap, a Governor was appointed. 
The entire garrison were murdered in the following year, 
and a further massacre took place in 1890. Since then 
order is said to have been restored. Politically, the 
archipelago is divided into an Eastern and Western 
group, the capitals being at Ponape and Yap. 
The natives of the Carolines are believed to number 
about 30,000, and the population is massed chiefly in 
the largest islands or groups—Euk, Yap, Lukunor, and 
Ponape. They exhibit a considerable mixture of race and 
variation of colour, the latter passing from a very dark 
copper in the west almost to a light brown in the 
eastern islands. Many are of unusually tall stature and 
strongly built. In the east, Polynesian blood is more 
evident, and on the island of ETukuor, according to Mr. F. 
